Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Bush Wars to Cost $400 Billion in Next 10 Years

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid released the following statement today:

"The President said today that his job is to confront problems and not to pass them on to future Congresses and future generations. But once again, he is saying one thing and doing another. His budget is fiscally irresponsible, misleading, and based on the wrong priorities. He clearly intends to pass along trillions of dollars in new debt to the next generation with the $4.5 trillion in debt that his Social Security privatization plan would create, the future costs of the Iraq war, and the true cost of his tax proposals."

Bush's Budget Leaves Out the Future Cost of the War in Iraq, Social Security Privatization and the Extension of Tax Cuts. The budget submitted by the president leaves out a number of the president's key priorities. "The proposed 2006 budget doesn't include any of the potentially huge costs for moving some Social Security taxes into the individual investment accounts that the president has proposed… the budget proposes no money to resolve the alternative-minimum-tax problem…Other omissions include spending for Iraq and Afghanistan, which could total more than $400 billion in the next 10 years, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates." Wall Street Journal, 2/8/05

(Note: The Congressional Budget Office is nonpartisan. Its function is to do research, calculations and projections, and other needed financial data support work for Congress.)